{"id":3683,"date":"2015-04-15T16:43:16","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T15:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3683"},"modified":"2015-04-16T11:39:57","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T10:39:57","slug":"someone-on-our-side","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3683","title":{"rendered":"Someone on our side"},"content":{"rendered":"
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UNITElive spoke yesterday (April 14) with Cardiff mum \u00c2\u00a0Jo Stevens, a prospective parliamentary candidate for Labour in Cardiff Central. Jo was hitting the campaign trail in Wales with Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, Unite Welsh secretary Andy Richards and shadow secretary for Wales Owen Smith MP.<\/p>\n

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In a political climate in which almost one in\u00c2\u00a0five MPs cite their pre-parliamentary occupations as \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpolitician\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a 50 per cent increase since 1997 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Stevens\u00c2\u00a0is no political careerist. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spent her entire life fighting for trade unionists and for people who have been injured and mistreated at work, currently in her position as a solicitor for Thompsons, one of Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s law firms.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a 48-year-old mother of two teenage boys,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she explains, \u00e2\u20ac\u015band I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lived in Cardiff for over 25 years.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through this personal background as a mother of two, champion of working people, and resident deeply knowledgeable about local concerns, that Stevens finds her rationale for standing for election.<\/p>\n

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Low pay<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHere in Cardiff Central, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a city centre that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full of shops, cafes and hospitality,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Stevens. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a real problem\u00c2\u00a0with low pay, insecure jobs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c people on zero hours contracts, people struggling to get secure employment with decent wages.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd that leads to all sorts of other inequalities like housing problems, health problems, educational attainment, debt and family breakdown,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bA low-pay, low-skill economy doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work here and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work across the rest of Wales.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need to get wages up; we need to get people into secure employment. We need to get people on the Living Wage, so they can spend money and pay taxes, and so put money into our public services.”<\/p>\n

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Stevens urged Unite members everywhere to vote for the party that represents their interests.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite members in Wales and across the UK should vote Labour if they want to see the rights of working people strengthened and good public services, including a good NHS, good schools and good hospitals,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf they want better secure employment, better terms and conditions and better pay \u00e2\u20ac\u201c then a Labour government is the only one that can deliver this.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite general secretary Len McCluskey called Stevens \u00e2\u20ac\u015ba real fighter for the ordinary working person.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all that working people want \u00e2\u20ac\u201c someone to be on their side,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI can tell the people of Cardiff Central that when you send Jo to Westminster, she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be there fighting with every sinew of her body for ordinary working people.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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UNITElive spoke yesterday (April 14) with Cardiff mum \u00c2\u00a0Jo Stevens, a prospective parliamentary candidate for Labour in Cardiff Central. Jo was hitting the campaign trail in Wales with Unite general secretary Len McCluskey, Unite Welsh secretary Andy Richards and shadow secretary for Wales Owen Smith MP.     In a political climate in which almost […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[273,224],"wps_subtitle":"Cardiff mum Jo Stevens wants secure jobs for UK's families ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3683"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3708,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683\/revisions\/3708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}